Customer Reviews

Hewlett Packard ScanJet 3400Cse Flatbed Scanner

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I have to say that I'm new to the whole scanner idea. I never really thought that I would ever need one, but sure enough I found a good reason to make the investment in one. My biggest concern was overall quality. I wanted something that had a high resolution but not a super high price, but I wanted a brand that I knew. I'm sorry, when it comes to scanner there are a lot of brands that I had never heard of. I have had really good luck with HP before and the price wasn't that much more than other scanners that I was considering, so I made the plunge. To tell you the truth, I was really afraid to try to install this myself as I have heard a lot of horror stories about scanner installations. However, I didn't have any problems and everything was really simple (I almost felt like I knew what I was doing). As for using the unit, it couldn't be more simple. I was scanning stuff within 5 minutes after the installation was done. Granted I had to learn what to tweek, but I was getting some really great results within a day as most of the adjustments that needed to be made weren't on the scanner, but the printer. I strongly recommend this unit to anyone who wants to explore the possiblities of what you can do with a scanner as this unit offers everything that you'll need to get great results and because it's HP you know that you'll be able to count on it for several years. Good Job,HP.

Like the reviewer before me, I am new at scanning. And I was having a hard time finding a scanner that was Win 95 compatible, that could be hooked up using parallel, that offered 600 x 1200 resolution with 36 bit or more color depth, and that scanned both photos and pages from books under 100 bucks. This one was perfect. I had no installation problems, and I was scanning in 10 minutes.

I first tried it out with a piece of paper, to see if I could scan the information off of it. It scanned, but when I tried saving it to notepad and it was almost done saving an error message popped up that said "Sorry, an unknown error has occurred." So then I tried copying it, and I pulled up Microsoft FrontPage 2000 and it pasted just fine. A little while later I scanned a photo of my great aunt, a black and white photo. It scanned perfectly.

Many people complain of the slowness of parallel, but it doesn't bother me that much and I didn't think it was slow at all. I think the photo software that was included was not good enough, the interface of the program is nice looking and fancy, but the lack of options to choose to enhance and change your photo is a bad thing. You have to buy their full featured program in order to get all the features. But I was expecting this, since many other people has received these type of programs with their scanners. I recommend getting Paint Shop Pro shareware version, or PhotoDraw trial version from Microsoft.

I began installation of the scanner with fear and trepidation. Past history has shown me hardward NEVER installs the way it should. Five minutes later I was scanning was absolutely no installation problems.

I tested the three buttons on the scanner and all worked properly. Scan, copy, and e-mail. The scan button brings up a preview window with options to scan only a selected portion or the entire document. Other option include graphics type (black and white, color, etc), size of scan, and other graphics related options. Only selecting options, most of which need not be changed, I clicked to scan image and the scanner re-scanned the document at a much slower speed. I scanned photos into both the package software and Corel Photo Suite 8.0 with no problems. I also scanned text into MS Word with no problems. Scanning time for most photos from the click of the scanner button to the time the finished product was on my screen was around a minute for a full page photo. Copy sends the document directly to the printer while e-mail automatically attached the document to an e-mail. Both of these options also worked efficiently.

The package graphics software is ok but if you want to do a lot of graphics manipulation (for web pages, etc.) You will want a good software package. A shareware copy of Paint-Shop Pro would work well for most users. If you just want to e-mail photos to friends, the package software will do fine.

If you are wondering if this scanner will work with your PC, here are my pc stats. Compac Presario 5410, AMD equivalent of P-II 333MHZ, 64 MEG RAM, 8 MEG Video Memory, 2xAGP Video Card, with USB ports. Also, I run Windows 98. My system has not had any problems with scanning or manipulating scanner documents.

Definitly a 5-star rating and for the price of $100.00 it's a steal.

We just bought the ScanJet 3400c. It is our first scanner & we love it. We also have Windows ME & have had no problems. HP has made it so easy to scan, print & e-mail projects with just a touch of a button. Our kids have had a blast doing their school projects with this scanner. It is a must for every family & small business owner.

I bought the HP3400Cse in December - I was operating on a Windows 98 platform at that time - the scanner took no time at all to install and worked perfectly the very first time. Then I upgraded my computer and installed Windows ME - before I reinstalled the scanner I happened upon the customer reviews for this item and discovered people saying it did not work with Windowns ME. I was worried. But I re-installed the scanner and then went to the Hewlett Packard site where there was an upgrade for the scanner - I downloaded that - and my scanner works perfectly on Windows ME.

For my purposes the scanner is a quality product. Easy to use and I have had no glitches in operating the scanner.

I purchased this product to work on a project requiring scanning. After using the product exactly once, I didn't have a need for it for a while. Six months later or so, the scanner no longer worked. Since it was out of warranty, HP only offered service over the phone for a fee with no guarantee that I would get results. This product only offers a 3 month warranty. Is this standing behind your product? HP has lost my business, and I recommend that you consider another manufacturer.

I purchased this scanner last year and it has worked wonderfully everytime. No problems with installation (Win98), it practically installed itself. The dual outputs (serial and UBS) are a plus.

For those folks with Win ME, it may be a problem with ME, and not the scanner. If you would have read ANY of the ME reviews, it has bugs and problems all over the place. In fact, Microsoft stopped marketing it last year, it's that unstable, even worse than 98. Stay away from ME for now. Wait for XP!

We were given this scanner for a gift, after several hours of trying to get it installed on Windows Me we contacted HP and they sent us a new installation disc for ME, which worked. We plugged along scanning in our photos, then after our 90 day warranty expired (by a couple of weeks) the bulb blew out and when I called HP they said it would cost...to fix... scanner! We then went to buy the same one (our mistake) and right out of the box the light never came on. Another blown bulb. My opinion is: PASS on this item!

i just bought it today Jun 6 2001 and it works perfectly with Win98. It is much faster than other brands (I had a Umax) and the resolution is very good. The hotkeys for scanning and printing are extremely useful. The scanner along with my HP932C printer become my personal copier.

I was pleased with this scanner until I scanned my third or fourth document. (Unfortunately, this occurred after the 90-day warranty expired.) While scanning the document, I heard a rattling noise, and the scanner stopped scanning. I looked under my document and through the scanner glass I saw a small white plastic cap rolling around loose. The belt that pulls the scanner back & forth had come off its upper axle because this cap, which should stay on the end of the upper axle, had popped off. (Note to HP: The cap ought to be threaded, like a screw, or glued on, so that it does not pop off.) I tried to email hp.com to ask for help in opening the scanner and fixing this on my own, but my computer keeps getting an error message from their website emailer.